First shock... I'm Shocked!

[East_TX_Spa]

Has it gotten any better?

Terminator

[KarlXII]

I went to a Pool & Spa store today and got me some serious chemicals. I've just dumped some Super-Flock into the skimmer, supposedly it sticks to the filter and draws metals and minerals out of the water.

I'll report back tomorrow.

Oh, one more thing. My alkalinity was below the scale. I had to up it with 5 tbs bicarbonate. Strange.

But I still got that impressive yellow color.

[Tatooed_Lady]

serious chemicals? I thought they were ALL serious? Anyhow, someone who actually KNOWS....is the stuff Karl's referring to similar to the stain/scale remover stuff, is it a clarifier.....?

[hottub.pool_boy]

Super-flock sounds like a settling agent used to drop suspended particles out of water in a swimming pool. Usually in a pool, it's added with pump running, then you shut off the pump overnight and it settles particles(like dirt, dead or live algae, etc) to the bottom. Not the right stuff. Is it labeled for us in a spa?

Should just rely on the larger stain and scale dose, and give it time to go back into solution. Do not super-chlorinate or super-oxidize until it is back in solution. You can go to the next Step and use SparkleUp (by bioguard). It's a wood pulp dirivative that coats your spa filter and works with the stain and scale control to remove it from the water.

[KarlXII]

Super-flock sounds like a settling agent used to drop suspended particles out of water in a swimming pool. Usually in a pool, it's added with pump running, then you shut off the pump overnight and it settles particles(like dirt, dead or live algae, etc) to the bottom. Not the right stuff. Is it labeled for us in a spa?

Should just rely on the larger stain and scale dose, and give it time to go back into solution. Do not super-chlorinate or super-oxidize until it is back in solution. You can go to the next Step and use SparkleUp (by bioguard). It's a wood pulp dirivative that coats your spa filter and works with the stain and scale control to remove it from the water.

Actually it is something like that. It does not flock particles to the bottom, it puts a coating on the filter in which the metals and minerals sticks. Sort of.
Most of the products you guys talk about is not available here...

[KarlXII]

There's no visible difference yet.  
If I can't see any change in water color by tonight, I'll emtpty, clean & refill.

[Tatooed_Lady]

silly reminder, but......one chemical at a time.....then wait for a couple/few hours to let the chemical do "its thing" before adding anything else......I recall this post someone made about adding stain/scale, chlorine and something else(??) that made the water turn into goo.....  

[KarlXII]

silly reminder, but......one chemical at a time.....then wait for a couple/few hours to let the chemical do "its thing" before adding anything else......I recall this post someone made about adding stain/scale, chlorine and something else(??) that made the water turn into goo.....  

Thanks for your reminder.

But that water is history now. Nothing at all happened. In fact it got worse, and looked more and more as toxic waste out of a Simpsons episode. Behold this sad water:



I put in a submersible pump and emptied it in 20 well-spent minutes. After that, I cleaned it out and started refill - with the same well water.   But look at the difference between old water coming out and fresh water coming in:


 

I made some interesting experiments.
 

The glass on the left:
I filled it with my tap water from the well, and added half a teaspoon of dichloride. It immediately turned yellow.

The glass in the middle: This is bottled drinking water. Half a teaspoon of dichloride - it´s still crystal clear.

The glass to the right: Thats the same tap water as in the first glass, but here I added a teaspoon of MPS. Still clear. I'm gonno go with this for a while and see how it turns out. Seems like dichlorine shocking is out of the question...
:-/

[anne]

that was a good experiment......seems that you have at least an answer, but now you cannot use chlorine? So if mineral oxidation is the issue, what if you added stain/scale stuff FIRST? Or would bromine be a thing to try instead? Doesn't seem advisable to rely on just MPS for sanitation, from what I have learned here.

[KarlXII]

that was a good experiment......seems that you have at least an answer, but now you cannot use chlorine? So if mineral oxidation is the issue, what if you added stain/scale stuff FIRST? Or would bromine be a thing to try instead? Doesn't seem advisable to rely on just MPS for sanitation, from what I have learned here.

Right. Well, it seems as if I can handle daily sanitation with chlorine, but have to shock with MPS. Smaller amounts chlorine doesn't bring out the yellow stuff, it hasn't this far anyway.
I just have to improvise.

What can happen if I use MPS for daily sanatation as well?

[Bonibelle]

Karl, I am making a guess here but I bet you have iron in your water, it reacts with the chlorine making the rusty mess that you have in your tub. How did you clean your filters? I have a water softener system because I get iron sometimes. I turn the softener off to fill my tub. When I did my last refill, I must have got a nice "plug" of iron because as the footwell was filling, I noticed the water looked like tea. Like T-Ladys said, I slowly added my chemicals starting with the stain and scale remover, allowing the water to thoroughly circulate before adding TA, Ph or shock. The water cleared beautifully. I use Bromine but I think the reaction probably would have been similar to yours if I didn't assure that the iron was sequestered and removed by the filters before I added the shock. My filters looked nasty like rust, but they did a great job of cleaning that out of the water. I don't know if that helps you but  you experiment pretty much indicates to me that you have iron in your water.  :-/

[tony]

Well, I put the product in there, and it hasn´t reacted to normal dichlor usage.  The  No Scale product is, from what I've gathered, a similar product.

No Scale product is not the same as Metal Gon.  If you have not used Metal Gon, find a spa store that sells Leisure Time products, buy the bottle and use the whole bottle.  It specifically sequesters metals.  Others prevent scale...very different.  There may be other products on the market that do the same thing, but my experience and what I read on boards is that Metal Gon is one of the best.

[Bonibelle]

Tony, I used stain and scale by BioGard, according to the bottle, it will do both. I know I definately had iron in the water in my tub and this product cleared it from the water and it collected on my filter. It took me a while to get my filters clean and they still have some rusty looking areas, but I think I would have had the same situation as Karl, if I had not removed the free iron before it was oxidized by the chlorine. He may need something stronger though.

[hottubdan]

Use the metal product as 1st step.  You might be able to find a filter to put on the end of your hose the pulls some of the metals out.

You cannot use MPS as sanitizer.  It is merely an oxidizer...does not kill.

Try using the chlorine as the sanitizer, MPS as ozidizer.

[KarlXII]

Thing is, I don't think we have as efficient chemicals as you guys over here. And it's hard to find, too.

I'll just have to improvise as I go. Right now I have the Super-Flock product in it, Hopefully that catches the iron before it oxidizes.


I will do chlorine after bath, and shock with MPS next time.